MARRIAGE: PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS (PART 4)
Song of Solomon is a collection of songs which Solomon and his spouse composed for themselves during courtship and after their wedding. It is called the song of songs.
"The song of songs, which is Solomon's." SS.1:1.
It means it is the chief song. The king composed many songs. Altogether, they were 1005 songs.
"And he spake of three thousand Proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five." 1Kings 4:32.
Among all his songs, he called the ones he composed for his spouse, the song of songs. It means it is superior to others.
The songs reveal God's original plan about marriage. It is designed to be filled with love.
"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Gen.2:23-25.
In the Twelfth Night written by William Shakespeare, Duke Orsino said and I quote:
"If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die."
Solomon and his bride proved to us that music is the food of love. You will need to try it by singing one for your spouse.
You remember Indian films in those days? Try it! It will water your love to grow.
We see Solomon calling his spouse my love. "Behold, that art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead." SS.4:1.
What does my love mean? It means the object of my love. Do you remember the sentence structure?
In a sentence you have the subject, the verb and the object. I love you, is a sentence. "I" is the subject while "you" is the object.
Object is the person or thing we direct the action to. To call a person my love, it means you direct your love to the person.
Love is not a feeling but a choice to obey God. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Eph.5:25.
Solomon obeyed that command. Who was the woman that the king loved so affectionately like this?
It was his first wife, ever before he became the king. We are told that the mother of Solomon made a crown for him for the wedding.
"Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." SS.3:11.
If he was a king then, his mother would not have needed to make a crown for him. He was just a prince, heir to the throne.
We didn't know the name of the woman. She was simply called a Shulamite.
"Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." SS.6:13.
She was a citizen of Shunem, a village in Issachar. "And the fourth lot came out to Issachar, for the children of Issachar according to their families.
"And their border was toward Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem." Jos.19:17-18.
In those days, they didn't differentiate between n and l. It could be called Shunnamite or Shulamite. A resident of Shunem is called Shunnamite.
"So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunnamite, and brought her to the king." 1Kings 1:3.
The woman Solomon married was not Abishag because when they were in courtship, the bride was in her mother's house, and not inside the palace.
"It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul liveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me." SS.3:4.
